Read this excerpt from When Birds Get Flu and Cows Go Mad! by John DiConsiglio. A Modern Pandemic During the past 25 years, AIDS has spread throughout the world. The first cases of AIDS were reported in 1981. Since then, the disease has become a pandemic. Now there are nearly 40 million people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Africa is the hardest-hit continent. More than 60 percent of all the people in the world with HIV live there. But no region has been spared. Why does the author conclude the article with this passage?